Mike Pye was a Sheffield Labour Councillor from 1984 to 2010. As lead spokesperson on anti-apartheid issues, he steered through the Council policies on boycotting South African goods and barring artists who had performed in South Africa from Sheffield City Hall. He helped set up Local Authorities Against Apartheid (LAAA) and chaired its National Steering Committee from 1984 to 1994.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2013.

Pauline Webb is a Methodist minister who began her career in the church’s Overseas Division and worked for the Methodist Missionary Society. In 1968 she attended the seminal Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Uppsala, Sweden, which led to the setting up of the Programme to Combat Racism. She served as Vice-Moderator of the WCC and later became Head of Religious Programmes at the BBC World Service. She was a strong supporter of the Anti-Apartheid Movement and spoke at numerous meetings and conferences, including the AAM’s first women’s conference in 1976.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2013.

Brian Filling became involved in anti-apartheid campaigning as a student at Glasgow University in the late 1960s. He was a founder of the Scottish AAM Committee in 1976 and served as its Chair from 1976 to 1994, when he became Chair of ACTSA Scotland. He was a member of the Executive Committee of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) from 1994 to 2011 and is now Honorary Consul for South Africa in Scotland. He was awarded the National Order of Companions of O R Tambo, the highest award made to non-South Africans, by the Republic of South Africa in 2012.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2013.

Lynda Chalker was MP for Wallasey from 1974 to 1992 and served as a minister in successive Conservative governments from 1979 to 1997. Since 1992 she has sat in the House of Lords as Baroness Chalker of Wallasey. As Minister of State in the Foreign Office from 1986 to 1997, her responsibilities included relations with Africa and the Commonwealth and she was one of the key figures in the British government’s relations with South Africa in the period 1986–94. From 1989 she served as Minister for Overseas Development. Baroness Chalker now travels widely in Africa as Chair of the consultancy Africa Matters.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2014.

Talal Karim came to Britain from Bangladesh in 1971 and supported anti-apartheid campaigns as a student at Warwick University. He later became a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Islington and a member of its Race Equality Committee. He represented Islington Council on Local Authorities Against Apartheid (LAAA) and was one of the main movers behind the Council’s Declaration on Southern Africa, and support for the African National Congress (ANC) and South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO).

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2013.

Amin Mawani came to London from Kenya in 1975, where he met Susi, who grew up in Heidelberg, Germany. They were both founder members of Ealing Anti-Apartheid Group in West London in the mid-1980s and Amin became the group’s first Secretary. In 1988 he was elected to the AAM’s National Executive Committee and Susi took over as Secretary. Ealing AA group campaigned for a boycott of South African goods and organised numerous concerts and social events to raise funds for the AAM.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2013.

Kath Harding was the Chair of Sheffield Anti-Apartheid Group and helped set up Sheffield’s Southern Africa Resources Centre. Sheffield AA Group was one of the AAM’s most active local groups and worked with Sheffield City Council, trade unions and churches to make Sheffield a centre of anti-apartheid activity in the 1980s and early 1990s.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out by students at Sheffield Hallam University in 2013.

David Granville joined the Anti-Apartheid Movement in London in the early 1980s and later moved to Sheffield, where he was active in Sheffield AA Group. He was the Co-ordinator of Sheffield Southern Africa Resource Centre, set up in 1988 to provide educational resources on Southern Africa to schools and community organisations.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out by students at Sheffield Hallam University in 2013.

Chitra Karve was an Anti-Apartheid Movement staff member from 1986 to 1989 and helped organise the 1988 Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70 campaign. She was a member of the AAM Women’s and Black Solidarity Committees, and was Chair of the latter. After the formation of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) in 1994 Chitra was elected to ACTSA’s Executive Committee. She is currently Chair of ACTSA.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2014.

Mike Sparham represented the civil service union NUCPS on the Anti-Apartheid Movement trade union committee from the mid-1980s and served as its Chair from 1990 to 1994. He was later the Chair of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA).

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2013.

Anna-Zohra Tikly grew up in a household committed to anti-apartheid campaigning and felt part of an extended family of AAM and ANC political activists. Her father was a political exile from South Africa and her mother was a teacher who had moved to London from Scotland. As a teenager she was active in Haringey Anti-Apartheid Group and later worked in the African National Congress’s London office.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2013.

Roger Harris joined the Anti-Apartheid Movement when he was a student at the University of East Anglia in the mid-1970s. He later became Treasurer of the London AA Committee and helped start a new AA group in Wandsworth, south London. In 1986, together with Margaret Ling, he set up AA Enterprises, a workers co-operative that produced anti-apartheid T-shirts and marketed products from the frontline states.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2013.

Peter Ahrends was born in Berlin in 1933. His family fled the Nazis and arrived in South Africa in 1937. He left at the age of 18 to study architecture in London. Peter became chair of UK Architects Against Apartheid, an affiliate of the Anti-Apartheid Movement. He campaigned for a cultural and academic boycott of South Africa and called for the de-recognition of the Institute of South African Architects by the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects).

In this clip Peter describes his memory of witnessing racism in South Africa as a child.

Ron Todd was the General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, 1985–92, and Chair of the TUC International Committee. He visited South Africa on a trade union mission in 1986, and was a strong supporter of the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the independent trade union movement in South Africa.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out by Christabel Gurney in 2004.

Ernest Rodker was active in Stop the Seventy Tour and helped organise direct action against the Springbok rugby tour of Britain in 1969–70. He was arrested on several occasions and was part of a group that organised undercover action to disrupt the tour. He was very active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in its earliest years and in the anti-nuclear Committee of 100, as well as in the campaign against the Vietnam war.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the ‘Forward to Freedom’ AAM history project in 2013.

Lela Kogbara was a member of the Anti-Apartheid Movement’s Black Solidarity and Executive Committees, and an activist in South London AA Group. She was the Chair of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) from 1994 to 2012, and still serves on its Executive Committee.

In this clip Lela Kogbara talks about the Black Solidarity Committee’s involvement in campaigns against racism in the UK, including helping to arrange a meeting between Stephen Lawrence's family and Nelson Mandela.

Simon Korner was Secretary and then Chair of Hackney AA Group from about 1986 to 1994. The group organised a weekly stall outside Sainsbury’s in Dalston and a regular picket of the local Shell garage in Clapton. It put on major fundraising shows at the Hackney Empire, featuring artists like Jack Dee, Eddie Izzard and the Pogues. Simon was a member of the London Anti-Apartheid Committee, and organised political dayschools and a mass picket of Shell HQ.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the ‘Forward to Freedom’ AAM history project in 2013.

Tim Oshodi joined the Anti-Apartheid Movement as a student activist in 1985. He was Chair of the London School of Economics AA Group and took part in an occupation of the LSE to pressure it to disinvest from South Africa. He was a researcher for the AAM's disinvestment campaign, and a member of the AAM National and Black Solidarity Committees. He was a founding member of Friends of Simukai, an group that worked in solidarity with freedom fighters in Zimbabwe. Tim is currently involved in solidarity work with South African based housing activists.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the ‘Forward to Freedom’ AAM history project in 2013.

Jan Clements taught English as a volunteer in Angola. She was one of the founders of the Anti-Apartheid Women’s Committee and became the Secretary of the London Anti-Apartheid Committee, that coordinated the activities of local London AA groups. In 1984 she worked with Archbishop Trevor Huddleston on organising an interfaith colloquium on apartheid. She later joined the staff of the International Defence and Aid Fund, supporting the families of political prisoners in South Africa, and visited Robben Island in the early 1990s to assess the needs of prisoners on their release. She now works as a lawyer on the Guardian newspaper.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom AAM history project in 2013.

Jerry Dammers formed the Specials in Coventry in 1977. He was an anti-apartheid activist from his school days, and in 1986 founded Artists Against Apartheid to involve musicians in anti-apartheid campaigns and promote the cultural boycott of South Africa. He wrote the song ‘Free Nelson Mandela’, which became an international hit and helped raise awareness of the situation of Nelson Mandela and political prisoners in South Africa.

In this longer clip (approximately 30 minutes) Jerry taks about his anti-apartheid work.